Parents and their children filled the Middle Smithfield Township Community and Cultural Center last evening for a back-to-school event sponsored by Lehigh Valley Hospital-Pocono.
Middle Smithfield Township | On Wednesday, Aug. 24, Lehigh Valley Hospital-Pocono held a special event promoting a healthy start to the 2022-23 school year. The event took place from 4-7 pm at the Middle Smithfield Township Community and Cultural Center and offered free pediatric vision screenings, healthy snacks, and giveaways. See the video.
“Today’s event is a back-to-school event dedicated for children who are going back to school, and the unique situation that they’ve found themselves in because of our environment is for kids these days,” said LVH-Pocono VP of Operations Gary Kogut. “We are offering… information on healthy diets for kids. Food has become so expensive, as we all know. It’s probably a challenge for parents to figure out how to handle their kids’ lunch needs. We’re also addressing some of the hygiene needs that kids are going to have because, unfortunately, Covid-19 is still out there. We’re going to go into flu season, and we have to help kids learn how to stay healthy.”
“We’re doing a back-to-school event. We’re screening eyesight. We are teaching kids how to properly wash hands. We’re doing experiments with germs,” said Dr. Leah Arlequin. “We are also offering some snacks, some lunch boxes, some goodies, and just trying to engage the community. Get them out to ask us questions. Whatever we can do to help.”
“Dr. Arlequin graciously asked me to come out here and help with the kids,” said PCOM Medical student Jay Patel. “It’s a great way for the community to come out here and engage with us and kind of get to know each other as well as the health network in general.”
A representative from LVH-Pocono stated the hospital is planning to hold bi-monthly events similar to this in the future. So stay tuned.
